By ten o’clock, there’d still been no call from Jayden. Her sister had called from Florida, worried that their father might be having heart problems, talking about the pressure it put on her, to carry the burden of their parents aging all alone. She called her mother, immediately, to find that her father had had heartburn after a Mexican dinner two nights before and was as healthy as could be.
She took a shower, standing there until the water ran cold, and then, in a short robe and bare feet, headed out to the small walled-in pool in her backyard. Not to swim. She just liked sitting out there at night, with the pool lights on, listening to the quiet. Her home was in a gated community. She felt safe. And yet...yearned for air.
She’d had a message from her doctor that afternoon, wanting to know if she was ready to schedule another insemination. She was physically ready. But hadn’t called back.
Probably a good thing, since she’d practically made an agreement to have sex with a hot probation officer. Her life plans, her baby plans, weren’t changing at all. But it might be best to get her little “thing” with Jayden out of her system before having a baby planted inside her.
She didn’t want to wait long, though. She was already thirty-two. And it might take a year for her to get pregnant.
Yes, it was all very practical, she thought as she sipped from the half glass of wine she’d poured on her way outside.
Sure, she was curious about the circumstances that had led Jayden Powell to believe that he’d stolen his happiness from another, but she didn’t need the details. The man was owning whatever mistakes he’d made. That was all she needed to know. It wasn’t like they were entering a relationship. There’d be respect, tenderness, absolutely, but they weren’t about warm fuzzies.
Leaving her wineglass next to her phone on the table between two loungers, she crossed the cool decking to retrieve the pool cleaner and skimmed the top of the water. There wasn’t much to collect. A small bug or two, a wayward leaf from a bougainvillea plant close by. The pool’s automatic vacuum system took care of much of the cleaning.
She liked to skim, though. Spent a lot of hours at the pool in the dark, slowly clearing the top of the water while she worked through prosecutorial strategies in her mind.
Maybe she should go see her parents. A two-day dose of her sister would be enough to take away any immediate loneliness she might be feeling. Loneliness that could make her more susceptible to Jayden Powell. And in the meantime, spending time with her folks, assuring herself they were as healthy as Mom had assured her they were, and seeing her nieces, too, would fill up her emotional well. Children had always done that for her, even Anna, before she’d been spoiled to the point of rottenness. Yeah, a dose of those two sweet girls would ease a bit of the sting of waiting for her own baby.
She’d check flights. As soon as she had a break in her caseload that would let her get away. And after she’d been successfully inseminated. It would be good, to tell them, in person, that she was pregnant.
Yeah, it was a plan. A good plan.
The pool was clean, and the probation officer still had not called.
In fact, he didn’t call until just before midnight. She’d given up and gone to bed, had been lying there playing a puzzle game on her phone, hoping to relax enough to fall asleep, when the thing rang.
Just before she’d reached the top of a mountain, too. She’d been about to win a big prize—in the form of extra game tools—and there was Jayden’s name, interrupting her moment.
“Hello?” she answered, wishing her increased heart rate was due to not being able to claim her rewards but knowing it was not.
“Is this too late? You said you worked late every night, and since we seem to have similar work habits, I thought you’d be waiting to hear what I found on the app.”
“I was waiting, yes, and I was still up.” Sitting up in bed. With only a short, spaghetti-strap nightshirt on. Without panties. Her secret. A concession to Ms. Shadow, who’d announced several years before that she preferred to sleep in the nude. Emma insisted on a nightshirt. The lack of panties was a compromise.
“I’m just on my way home now, calling to let you know that while I’ll get to it when I get home, I’ll call you in the morning. It’s been a long night.”
“Is everything okay or should I be expecting another case file on my desk in the morning?” She was half teasing. Obviously he wasn’t going to send every one of his cases her way.
“He didn’t break parole, he broke his leg, among other things,” Jayden said, sounding tired.
She figured it might be nice for him to have someone waiting up for him at home with a cold beer, or a glass of wine, and a few minutes to sit with him before he tended to more work. Someone who’d understand that, though it was late, he still had work to do. Someone who’d support him in that endeavor.
Not her. At all. Just someone. He was a nice guy.
“He was in a car accident on the way to work,” Jayden was saying while she reeled her mind back into appropriate spaces. “He took a shortcut on a country road that cuts through some groves, was thrown from the car and then hobbled and dragged himself, thinking he was heading back to the road, but ended up being farther into the groves.”
“Oh my God. That’s horrible.” She was there in her mind. Lying in pain with no way to call for help. “Is he going to be all right?”
“Yeah. I waited with his wife until he was out of surgery and the doctor came out to talk to her. They expect a full recovery.”
“And was there alcohol in his system?” She knew Jayden would have waited to hear about the toxicology report.
“Nope. The report was clean.” He sounded pleased, as he would be.
She was pleased, too, to know that they were on the same wavelength. “How did they find him?” she asked.
“He’d agreed to be on my location app, so we found his car almost right away. His phone was in the car, in a holder, with the GPS still on. It took us a while to find him in the dark, in what was really more woods than anything.”
He’d had one hell of a long day. “You need to get some rest,” she told him. “Bill Heber’s information can wait until morning. It’s not like we’re going to be able to do anything with it until then. And you can see that he’s where he should be, right?”
“I check every hour.”
“Except when you’re asleep, I hope.”
“I’ve got an alarm set up to let me know if there’s movement outside of a perimeter. It tells me anytime he travels enough miles in any direction to get within five miles of Suzie’s home.”
Emma’d known she could rely on him. She’d just had no idea quite how good he was.
The thought made her squirm a little bit in her bed as her shadow side suddenly tried to engage a takeover—imagining his enriched performance in much more personal endeavors.
“I’ll get to it yet tonight,” he said. “I have a full day tomorrow. So I should get off of here.”
For a split second she thought about telling him she thought she’d been followed on the way back from Suzie’s that night, but didn’t want to lose his respect by making issues where there were none. The truck had disappeared from behind her long before she’d made it home. And she’d had no legitimate business driving by the woman’s house in any case.
“Right. Okay. Thanks for calling...”
“I’ve been thinking about you on and off all night,” he suddenly admitted.
That wasn’t good. She was smiling anyway. Because she’d been thinking of him, too.
“I’ve been thinking about what we talked about at dinner,” he continued, sounding hesitant, and her spirits dropped several notches.
She pulled her nightshirt, which was already covering her crotch, down even farther, yanking her bedsheet up to her neck.
“Thinking what?” she asked. There weren’t going to be any comp
lications, either way.
“That even though we’re not starting anything, relationship-wise, my goal is to make you feel good. If ever there’s a time when that stops, this stops.”
Heart pounding, grinning, her body on fire, Emma sat there for a second, having a hard time believing she’d actually met someone so much like her. Even stranger was that she’d known him peripherally for a while and hadn’t known this about him.
“That works both ways,” she said. “If I’m not making you feel good, it stops.”
“Agreed.”
“Okay, good.”
So when were they going to do it? Part of her was dying to know. Pushing her to ask him to stop by right then.
But Emma knew better. She told him good-night. Hung up. And left the rest just hanging there.
Anticipation, the buildup to release, the tease, would make it all that much better when it finally happened.
And it was going to happen.
Finally, something she and Ms. Shadow could agree upon.
Chapter 9
Crap. Just not good.
Out of the four time frames Emma had given him, Bill Heber had been in Santa Raquel for two of them. Not at his wife’s home. But close.
Jayden’s faith in Heber had been rocked a little, but he still had the sense that Bill wasn’t lying to him. He’d sworn he hadn’t been to Suzie’s house, and he hadn’t been.
But Jayden had some questions to ask the man. Unfortunately, one in the morning wasn’t an appropriate time for him to call a parolee unless he wanted to alert the guy to possible serious ramifications for perceived actions.
He wasn’t ready to alert Bill yet. He wanted this done, and Suzie’s abuser found, before Bill caught wind of the fact that his wife had been hurt.
And before he knew he was a suspect again.
Both facts could seriously jeopardize Bill’s chances for successful reintegration into being a contributing member of society.
He couldn’t call in the middle of the night, but he had to get the man on the phone before he had to turn over his findings to Emma. Had to be able to give her logical reasons, with alibis for Bill’s whereabouts on both occasions in question.
That was why he was up at six Friday morning, showered and, forgoing the rib wrap, dressed and out the door by seven. That, and because he’d been lying in the bed thinking about sex with Emma Martin, which wasn’t a great sign. Wanting it, even doing it, was passably acceptable. Mooning over it made it more than it could be.
Bill was already expecting an in-person visit sometime, so his showing up wouldn’t send up any alarms at all, where a phone call asking questions might.
Bill was due at work at eight in the little town just north of Santa Raquel where he was currently renting a trailer from a friend until he found a little place to buy. He still had money, savings that had been his part of the divorce settlement, but while it was enough for a down payment, it wasn’t enough to support him.
Unlike some of Jayden’s parolees, Bill had friends who were upstanding members of society, respectable family men. Friends from high school. Clients who’d always come to his shop for any of their car repair needs. People who trusted him.
Right now, what Jayden cared most about was making sure that Bill continued to trust him. He figured if he showed up right before Bill had to leave, he could ask a few questions, as he always did on visits, and let the other guy get on his way. Show Bill that it was just a cursory stop-by, because he was required to make them, not because he believed Bill might act out.
Then he’d check for any ice cream shops, or shops that served ice cream, in the area. He’d already done a search for shops near the areas Bill had been during the two visits that had him near Suzie during critical times, and come up with two. He’d be on both of those later that morning.
In jeans and a T-shirt, Bill was just locking up the door of the trailer when Jayden pulled up. Jayden’s car wasn’t fancy. A dark blue sedan, four-door, relatively new. But nothing like the sports cars Jayden had driven as a young adult. He still owned one, garaged at his parents’ house down south, but he only kept it because his father, who’d purchased it for him, had begged him not to sell it.
He met Bill at the door of Bill’s truck—an older red pickup that he’d paid cash for upon his release. Bill had sold the newer pickup he’d owned before his incarceration rather than pay to have it stored and have to make truck payments while in jail. The man was responsible.
Accountable.
“Hey, Officer,” Bill greeted him, holding out his hand for a shake.
Jayden noted the strength of Bill’s grasp, tight enough to show familiarity, comfort, affection, confidence, but not so tight that it gave hints of aggression, power, control.
“How’s it going?” Jayden asked, squinting against the rising sun. It was piercing in spite of the sunglasses he wore.
“Good.” Bill shrugged. “Can’t complain.”
He could. Living in a trailer instead of the three-bedroom home he’d once owned. But he didn’t.
“Doing a quick check, like we talked about,” Jayden said, keeping to the point, like it was all just red tape. “Give me some alibies about a few random places on the location app and we’re good to go.”
“Let me have ’em,” Bill said. He stood with a hand on his door handle, a hand at his side, looking at Jayden straight-on.
He named a location not far from Bill’s home.
“A taxidermy place,” Bill said immediately. “I caught a twenty-five-incher six weeks ago and had it mounted. I can show you the fish and the paid receipts.”
“When you get a chance—” Jayden nodded “—just email a copy.”
“I’d do it now, ’cept I’m not going to be late to work. You’ll have ’em tonight.”
Jayden then named one of the Santa Raquel addresses.
“A park I used to go to with Suzie. We carved our names in a tree there, a long time ago. I was having a rough night, thought about drinking, and went to take a look at the tree instead. To remind myself why I’m where I’m at and how much I know I ain’t never goin’ back. I bought a hot dog from a vendor there. And took a picture of the tree on my phone.”
He pulled out his phone as he was speaking, and showed it to Jayden, who noted the time stamp. And then Bill scrolled farther. “Here’s the fish, too,” he said.
“Wow, that’s a nice one!” Jayden asked what kind of bait he’d used and what time of day it had been.
And then he asked about an address closer to LA.
“An autobody shop,” Bill said. “I was there on official business, picking up some parts for work. I’ll take a picture of my time card when I get to the shop and send it to you.”
It wasn’t necessary, but Jayden didn’t say so. He wanted Bill to be accountable. To be able to feel accountable.
He gave one more non-alarming address and then the other Santa Raquel one.
“You know I haven’t been to Suzie’s house,” Bill said, giving him a more pointed look.
“I do. But you were arrested for breaking and entering in Santa Raquel. You aren’t currently living there. I have to check...”
Bill nodded. Frowned. “I was looking at a place,” he said. “It’s for sale. It’s right off the freeway, needs some work, but I can afford it.”
Bill was thinking about moving back to town. Where Suzie lived.
“I passed on it because I figured it was too soon,” Bill explained. “When Suzie and I can talk, and I can make sure she’s okay with me moving back to my hometown, then I’ll buy.”
As one of the conditions of his release, Bill wasn’t allowed to contact his ex-wife, since he’d broken into her home. But he was allowed to speak with her if she contacted him.
“Has she called you?” Jayden asked. And knew he’d gone too far when Bill took a deep breath.<
br />
“You’re checking my phone records, right?” Bill asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you know she hasn’t called. You also know I haven’t called her.”
He did.
He nodded. “I’m here to help, Bill. I know you can do this. I also know there will be tough times. I hope you’ll call me, anytime of the day or night, if you get to a point where doing so is the only thing that would stop you from doing something you don’t want to do.”
“I’d dump myself at the bottom of the ocean before I hurt that woman,” his parolee said. “But yeah, I got your number on my speed dial.”
Bill showed Jayden his phone.
He nodded. “Then we’re all good, man. I’ll be checking by again within the next few days. You’re at the three-month mark and I’ve found that to be critical timing. I like to keep a tighter watch between three and six months, if that’s okay with you.”
“Like you did for the first two weeks,” Bill said, climbing into his truck. “I hope someday when I see your ugly mug it’ll be over a beer at a pool table somewhere.” He pulled his door closed behind him.
Jayden didn’t get a chance to tell the older man that he’d like that. A beer and a game of pool sounded good. Too good. Reminding him of days gone, college nights that he and his frat brothers would drink and shoot pool until the sun came up, and then drink some more...
* * *
It was one of those days when Emma felt like no matter what she did, it wasn’t enough. She’d been disappointed from the get-go when she’d missed a call from Jayden. She’d been in court when he’d left a message, telling her that not only had he been over Bill’s locations, but that also he’d talked to the man himself. He’d told her that Bill had not been within two miles of Suzie’s home since he’d been out of jail and that he had alibis for every single location Jayden had questioned him about. Bill would be sending receipts as proof and Jayden would forward them to her if she had to see them.
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